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Global connectedness of local NGOs: do different types of funding create barriers for cooperation?

Authors:
Adil Rodionov
Adil Rodionov
Darkhan Medeuov at Nazarbayev University
Darkhan Medeuov
Kamilya Rodionova
Kamilya Rodionova
Kamilya Rodionova
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How does international financial aid affect the cooperative behavior of local non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Can NGOs, while turning global, preserve peer connections with local actors and be engaged in local issues? The civil society literature contains competing perspectives on and reports of how international financial aid may restructure local civic networks. Some scholars argue that international support comes at the expense of local integration as inclusion in global networks takes local NGOs out of the local context, while others find evidence that organizations do not have to face “a forced choice”, and may well be integrated both globally and locally. Drawing on this scholarship, we examine two hypotheses on how transnational funding influences cooperation patterns among NGOs. The hierarchy argument states that public entities tend to cooperate with internationally funded NGOs as external contact signals quality and trustworthiness. The segregation argument, on the contrary, suggests financial homophily according to which organizations are more likely to choose peers similar in sources of funding. To test these hypotheses, we apply Exponential Random Graph Models to the data on cooperation among 221 Kazakhstani NGOs. Results support the segregation hypothesis implying that NGOs are likely to have a bias towards similarly funded peers.
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Global connectedness of local NGOs: do different
types of funding create barriers for cooperation?
Adil Rodionov, et al. [full author details at the end of the article]
Accepted: 22 February 2021 /Published online: 4 March 2021
Abstract
How does international financial aid affect the cooperative behavior of local non-
governmental organizations (NGOs)? Can NGOs, while turning global, preserve peer
connections with local actors and be engaged in local issues? The civil society literature
contains competing perspectives on and reports of how international financial aid may
restructure local civic networks. Some scholars argue that international support comes
at the expense of local integration as inclusion in global networks takes local NGOs out
of the local context, while others find evidence that organizations do not have to face “a
forced choice”, and may well be integrated both globally and locally. Drawing on this
scholarship, we examine two hypotheses on how transnational funding influences
cooperation patterns among NGOs. The hierarchy argument states that public entities
tend to cooperate with internationally funded NGOs as external contact signals quality
and trustworthiness. The segregation argument, on the contrary, suggests financial
homophily according to which organizations are more likely to choose peers similar
in sources of funding. To test these hypotheses, we apply Exponential Random Graph
Models to the data on cooperation among 221 Kazakhstani NGOs. Results support the
segregation hypothesis implying that NGOs are likely to have a bias towards similarly
funded peers.
Keywords Civil society .Kazakhstan .Homophily .Network analysis .ERGM .Social
networks
The civil society literature contains competing perspectives on how global integration
may rewire local civic networks. Some scholars assert that being “global”and “local”
exclude one another (Luong and Weinthal 1999;Henderson2002; Mendelson and
Theory and Society (2021) 50:393–416
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-021-09439-z
We are deeply indebted to Alina Khamatdinova and Andrey Yemelin, who collected the original data and
generously shared it with us. Dinara Khairikenova assisted us at various stages of this research, and we are
immensely grateful to her. We are also grateful to Alima Bissenova for organizing the discussion of this paper
at the Nazarbayev University, Aigul Zabirova for organizing the workshop at Eurasian National University.
Our thanks go out to Jan Fuhse, Mikhail Sokolov, Anna-Lena Hönig, and David Suárez, who provided fruitful
and thorough critics of early versions of this text, and the Theory and Society editors and reviewers. Adil
Rodionov also wishes to give thanks to the Weiser Professional Development Program and especially to
Pauline Jones, and Global Faculty Grant Program initiated by the Open Society Foundation.
#The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2021
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... We conceive of NGOs as nonprofit, voluntary citizens' groups that are organized on local, state, national, or transnational levels and that perform a variety of tasks and functions (Davies 2020). Pertinent research has shown that NGOs are willing to participate in different institutional venues to realize their organizational goals (Murphy and Kellow 2013), and it has identified various factors for explaining their participation patterns in global governance (Bäckstrand et al. 2017;Charnovitz 2006;Hanegraaff 2015;Keck and Sikkink 1998;Mitchell and Schmitz 2014;Rodionov et al. 2021;Stroup 2020). However, these findings are predominantly based on empirical inquiries focusing on governance actors in the Global North. ...
... Our overall expectation is that similarity, that is, common characteristics, facilitates the establishment of networks since similarity creates trust, as postulated by the concept of homophily (Atouba and Shumate 2015;Gulati 1995;Rodionov et al. 2021). Trust is also a key element in PCG. ...
... However, NGOs committed to policy advocacy and service provision are more likely to partner with national and transnational organizations, as stated by the representatives of the Peru-based SPDA. Rodionov et al. (2021) contend that the literature on civil society has put forth two competing propositions about how global integration may affect local NGOs: one perspective argues that being global excludes being local, whereas the other sees them as mutually reinforcing. ...
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